Monday, December 31, 2012
Monday, December 24, 2012
Friday, December 21, 2012
Santa at the Library Today
Santa is coming to the Lynchburg Library today, December 21st from 10 AM to 12PM and from 1PM to 3PM. Santa will be listening to children's wishes, sharing cookies and reading aloud. Parents are encouraged to bring cameras and capture the moment when your child sits on Santa's lap.
Friday, December 14, 2012
What to do if your brakes stop working
Suppose you're driving down the freeway one day. As you're about to take the exit, you tap on the brakes -- and you don't slow down. No matter how hard you press, nothing happens. You have no brakes! What are you going to do? When you press on the brake pedal in almost all cars today, you're pushing on a piston. That piston pushes on brake fluid in the master cylinder, pressurizing the brake fluid. It flows through thin pipes, called brake lines, to pistons at each wheel. Those pistons apply pressure to the brake pads, and they squeeze against a disk or a drum to stop the car. If you were to have a catastrophic loss of brake fluid or if someone were to cut your brake lines, nothing would happen when you hit the brake pedal. The first thing to do if you ever find yourself in the "no brakes!" situation is to try pumping the brakes. If your brake lines have a small leak (instead of a cut), you may be able to pump enough fluid into the system to get things under control. The next thing is to try the emergency brake -- this is definitely an emergency! If someone cut your brake lines, he or she was probably smart enough to cut the cable for the emergency brake as well, so let's say that you find that the emergency break is out of commission too. Now you officially have a problem. The next thing to try is the transmission. You can downshift a gear at a time and use the engine for braking. Lots of people do this with their manual transmission as a matter of habit. It works just as well with an automatic transmission. Drop to a lower gear, wait for your speed to decrease and then drop down another gear. If there's a grassy median, you can drive onto it to aid the process. The surface of the grass and the uneven ground will provide a little resistance to help slow the car. If you're doing all this and it looks like you're going to run into something before you get the car stopped, then think strategically. Given a choice between running into something solid -- the massive concrete post of a bridge -- and something that will give way -- a chain link fence -- choose the object that will give way. If you can scrub off speed by edging the side of the car against a wall or a guardrail, that's a good idea. Or, if you can drive up a rising embankment, that will also help. In other words, if you have time to save the car by using something nondestructive like the transmission or an embankment, use it. If you can't save the car, then save yourself. Do whatever you can to avoid injury to yourself by running into something "soft" or scrubbing off the speed. And if that fails, then relax and hope your airbag is in good shape!Read more: http://auto.howstuffworks.com/auto-parts/brakes/brake-problems/brakes-stopped-working1.htm
Friday, December 7, 2012
Top 5 Signs of Engine Trouble
Thursday, November 29, 2012
How Traffic Works
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Washing Your Car Naturally
Thursday, November 15, 2012
How To Prepare Your Jeep For Offroad
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
How to Protect Your Car’s Interior
Try to add up the hours you spend in your car. It’s a lot, isn’t it? Commutes, errand runs and road trips can have you sitting in those bucket seats for hours on end, and during that time, you and your passengers are actually living in the interior. That means smudges on the windows, scratches on the dash and food in the seat crevices accumulate and leave you wondering what happened to the spotless interior you swear it had when you first bought the car.
A Quick Clean
Luckily, it’s not that difficult to keep a car’s cabin from looking a little too, well, lived in. First things first, get something to stuff your trash into. Just use a plastic bag or a container you don’t use around the house and throw it in the backseat. You can even affix a temporary hook to the door or seat to keep things even neater. Every once and awhile, take it out and relish in the fact that you haven’t spent an hour cleaning up. Keeping trash off the floor also preserves your carpets, which can get stained from any number of items.
The idea of taking a rag to your dash and leather seats is made easier if you have them on-hand. The key here is to just use a little bit of soapy water to wipe the surfaces of your car – some cleaning products contain alcohols that prematurely dry and age the materials by reducing the flexibility in the vinyl. Store a small spray bottle of your homemade cleaning fluid and a rag under your seat or in a storage bin for access when you’re waiting for your kids to get out of school or sitting in that crazy-long drive-through line. This will also come in handy when an emergency spill happens. Lastly, keep your car smelling like roses (or at least a laundromat) by adding dryer sheets under the seats.
Weather Resistant
You can’t discount the impact weather has on your vehicle either. In summer, sandy feet can quickly make a mess of an interior, and dare we mention the destruction caused by mud and snow? If you spend a lot of time ducking in and out of the elements, you might want to grab some all-weather floor mats. They’re easy to clean and do a great job of keeping the muck in one place.
The sun’s rays can also wreak havoc on your car’s surfaces, causing vinyl to crack over time and materials to fade. A simple solution is to regularly put a sunshade on the windshield. They’re inexpensive and help to keep your interior looking new.
Saving money on repair work and cleaning comes more easily when you take the time to make preventative care a priority. Not only will these tricks make your car a nicer place to be, keeping grime out of your ride will cut down on large maintenance costs in the future and will help to retain its value over time
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Happy Halloween!
Don’t know what to do for Halloween this year? Here’s a list of Halloween events in Lynchburg:
• Oct 31: Tree Circus at Tree of Life Ministries: 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. The "Tree Circus" is a Halloween alternative which provides a safe environment for children and their family to enjoy a wonderful time of fun activities and receive lots and lots of candy. Join us for an evening of super blow-ups, hay rides, feats of strength by the Power Source Team, games & prizes and candy, candy and more candy. There will also be vendors on site providing food and drinks to purchase. Free Admission and Open to the Public. For more info call (434) 237-1572
• Oct 31: "Halloween Treats" Concert: 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Under the baton of Music Director/Conductor Bruce Habitzruther, the Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra opens the subscription season with a fun-filled "Halloween Treats" concert, complete with a kiddie costume parade. Spooky music such as "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," "Night on Bald Mountain," and "Funeral March for a Marionette" will fill the air that afternoon. Location: E.C.Glass Auditorium 2111 Memorial Avenue Lynchburg, VA. Tickets are $20 for adults, $5 for students, and children 12 and under are free. For more information call 434-845-6604 or email lso@ntelos.net or get tickets at lynchburgtickets.com.
• Oct 31: All Hallows Eve Service: 5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. Refreshments by jack-o-lantern candlelight in the Earley Memorial Shrub Garden following service. Seating is very limited so arrive early! Location: Old City Cemetery Chapel 401 Taylor Street Lynchburg, VA 24501. For more information call 434-847-1465 or email dawn@gravegarden.org or visit their website www.gravegarden.org.
Information courtesy of: http://www.wset.com/story/13396756/halloween-events
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Tips for Driving on Snow and Ice
It’s that time of year again, winter! Check out tips from The Weather Channel on how to drive on snow and ice.
The best advice for driving in bad winter weather is not to drive at all, if you can avoid it.
Don't go out until the snow plows and sanding trucks have had a chance to do their work, and allow yourself extra time to reach your destination.
If you must drive in snowy conditions, make sure your car is prepared (TIPS), and that you know how to handle road conditions.
It's helpful to practice winter driving techniques in a snowy, open parking lot, so you're familiar with how your car handles. Consult your owner's manual for tips specific to your vehicle.
Driving safely on icy roads
- Decrease your speed and leave yourself plenty of room to stop. You should allow at least three times more space than usual between you and the car in front of you.
- Brake gently to avoid skidding. If your wheels start to lock up, ease off the brake.
- Turn on your lights to increase your visibility to other motorists.
- Keep your lights and windshield clean.
- Use low gears to keep traction, especially on hills.
- Don't use cruise control or overdrive on icy roads.
- Be especially careful on bridges, overpasses and infrequently traveled roads, which will freeze first. Even at temperatures above freezing, if the conditions are wet, you might encounter ice in shady areas or on exposed roadways like bridges.
- Don't pass snow plows and sanding trucks. The drivers have limited visibility, and you're likely to find the road in front of them worse than the road behind.
- Don't assume your vehicle can handle all conditions. Even four-wheel and front-wheel drive vehicles can encounter trouble on winter roads.
If your rear wheels skid...
- Take your foot off the accelerator.
- Steer in the direction you want the front wheels to go. If your rear wheels are sliding left, steer left. If they're sliding right, steer right.
- If your rear wheels start sliding the other way as you recover, ease the steering wheel toward that side. You might have to steer left and right a few times to get your vehicle completely under control.
- If you have standard brakes, pump them gently.
- If you have anti-lock brakes (ABS), do not pump the brakes. Apply steady pressure to the brakes. You will feel the brakes pulse — this is normal.
If your front wheels skid...
- Take your foot off the gas and shift to neutral, but don't try to steer immediately.
- As the wheels skid sideways, they will slow the vehicle and traction will return. As it does, steer in the direction you want to go. Then put the transmission in "drive" or release the clutch, and accelerate gently.
If you get stuck...
- Do not spin your wheels. This will only dig you in deeper.
- Turn your wheels from side to side a few times to push snow out of the way.
- Use a light touch on the gas, to ease your car out.
- Use a shovel to clear snow away from the wheels and the underside of the car.
- Pour sand, kitty litter, gravel or salt in the path of the wheels, to help get traction.
- Try rocking the vehicle. (Check your owner's manual first — it can damage the transmission on some vehicles.) Shift from forward to reverse, and back again. Each time you're in gear, give a light touch on the gas until the vehicle gets going.
Read more: http://www.weather.com/activities/driving/drivingsafety/drivingsafetytips/snow.html
Friday, October 19, 2012
How to Share the Road with Truckers
Everybody has a horror story to tell about an encounter they've had with an 18-wheeler on the Interstate, and how they were nearly killed by the inattentiveness of the truck driver. News programs like Dateline NBC and 60 Minutes feed this fear with selectively edited stories regarding truck safety. But what nobody seems to consider is that they themselves may have caused the problem because of ignorance about what is involved in driving a truck, or by engaging in righteous driving behavior that did nothing but endanger their own lives and those of the people they care most about.
Personally, we've seen rude truckers hog the road, and we've seen dimwitted drivers set themselves up for what could be a very painful, if not deadly, lesson. Furthermore, not all trucks traveling the nation's highways are properly maintained, due to a lack of finances or pure laziness. But for most truck drivers, who are paid by the mile and are held responsible for damaged goods, their lives and livelihoods depend on driving a well-maintained truck carefully, and getting freight to its destination on time.
Tractor trailer trucks are responsible for carrying nearly 30 percent of all the cargo shipped in the United States. Technology and improved roadways have allowed the use of trucks for shipping to increase steadily since the 1920s, resulting in larger vehicles and heavier loads. Yet, traffic fatalities involving trucks have steadily declined during the past 50 years, except for a small spike upward in the early 1980s right after the trucking industry was deregulated. Fatalities due to accidents involving semi trucks total 5,000 annually on average, with the vast majority of those fatalities suffered by occupants of passenger vehicles that collided with a truck. As motorists who must share the road with semi trucks, we can do our part to help reduce this number even further if we simply take the time to follow a few simple driving rules and try to understand how difficult it is to maneuver a tractor-trailer in traffic.
We asked Michael Taylor, transportation special programs developer for the Tractor Trailer Training Program at Triton College in River Grove, Ill., what the top five pet peeves truckers had with fellow motorists were. Here is his list:
1) Riding in a trucker's blind spots. Trucks have large blind spots to the right and rear of the vehicle. Smaller blind spots exist on the right front corner and mid-left side of the truck. The worst thing a driver can do is chug along in the trucker's blind spot, where he cannot be seen. If you're going to pass a truck, do it and get it over with. Don't sit alongside with the cruise control set 1 mph faster than the truck is traveling.
2) Cut-offs. Don't try to sneak into a small gap in traffic ahead of a truck. Don't get in front of a truck and then brake to make a turn. Trucks take as much as three times the distance to stop as the average passenger car, and you're only risking your own life by cutting a truck off and then slowing down in front of it.
3) Impatience while reversing. Motorists need to understand that it takes time and concentration to back a 48-foot trailer up without hitting anything. Sometimes a truck driver needs to make several attempts to reverse into tight quarters. Keep your cool and let the trucker do her job.
4) Don't play policeman. Don't try to make a truck driver conform to a bureaucrat's idea of what is right and wrong on the highway. As an example, Taylor cited the way truck drivers handle hilly terrain on the highway. A fully loaded truck slows way down going up a hill. On the way down the other side of the hill, a fully loaded truck gathers speed quickly. Truckers like to use that speed to help the truck up the next hill. Do not sit in the passing lane going the speed limit. Let the truck driver pass, and let the Highway Patrol worry about citing the trucker for breaking the law.
5) No assistance in lane changes or merges. It's not easy to get a 22-foot tractor and 48-foot trailer into traffic easily. If a trucker has his turn signal blinking, leave room for the truck to merge or change lanes. Indicate your willingness to allow the truck in by flashing your lights.
According to "Sharing the Road," a booklet distributed by John Deere Transportation Insurance, the three most common types of accidents involving heavy trucks involve the following:
1) Crashes caused by the truck's inability to stop in time.2) Crashes caused by a motorist trying to pass a truck on the right while the truck is making a right-hand turn. Also known as the right turn squeeze.3) Crashes caused by a motorist riding in the trucker's blind spots. Use the following rule of thumb: If you cannot see the truck driver in his mirrors, he probably cannot see you.
By taking simple common-sense steps to protect yourself and your family when driving near large trucks, traffic fatalities will continue to drop. Over the years, the trucking industry has improved the quality of truck drivers by making it more difficult to qualify for and keep a Commercial Driver's License (CDL). Mandatory drug testing has also been instituted. In fact, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published the following data in 2008. The intoxication rate for drivers involved in fatal accidents was:
27% for motorcycle riders 23% for light truck drivers (pickups and SUVs, that is) 23% for passenger car drivers 1% for truck drivers
Still, more work must be done to combat tightly scheduled deliveries, overbearing stacks of paperwork and driver fatigue caused by federal regulations that work against the human body's natural circadian rhythm.
After meeting with truck driving instructors at Triton College, with representatives from the Illinois Transportation Association and learning what it takes to pilot a tractor-trailer by taking the wheel myself, we joined Taylor for a ride in a brand-new empty tanker truck.
We covered suburban roads during a half-hour loop just to the southeastern side of O'Hare airport. During our 30-minute ride, two motorists turned left across traffic directly in front of the truck. One young woman in a Toyota Celica crossed no more than 50 feet in front of us as she zoomed onto a side street. An older couple in a Dodge Grand Caravan turned in front of our International tractor, and incredibly, slowed so they wouldn't scrape the van on a steep driveway apron to a convenience store. A dude in a Camaro RS blasted by on the left, cut in front of the truck and stopped at a red light we were approaching. When the light turned green, he turned right.
These are the kinds of driving habits that we must break for truck-related accident rates to drop even lower. After a day at truck driving school, we left Chicago for Denver in a Subaru Outback. During that evening and the next day traveling I-80 and I-76, we were keenly aware of the needs of the truckers with whom we shared the road. We behaved more courteously toward truck drivers and fellow motorists than usual, and exercised more patience. We doubt very much that by driving more defensively and less aggressively we arrived in Denver any sooner than we would have had we not let that Kenworth into our lane back in Iowa or had we tried to beat that Freightliner to the construction zone near Lincoln, Neb. We do feel, however, that our trip was a safer one, that we had done our part to make highway travel better. Now it's time to do yours.
Source: Edmunds.com
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Chrysler Think Fast Challenge
Think fast. Put your knowledge to the test, and play the Think Fast Challenge:

Take the challenge: https://www.facebook.com/Chrysler/app_388076601227060?ism=KMOct1712Facebook1
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk
The most capable Jeep Grand Cherokee ever conceived has just been unleashed. Time to take control of the trails.
Visit http://bit.ly/PaBc6e for more information on the all-new Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Chrysler 300 Still Turns Heads





